Nobody who has seen Monty Python can ever take John Philip Sousa’s “Liberty Bell March” seriously again.

One of Conan O’Brien’s picks for his week as TCM’s guest host is “Network,” Sidney Lumet’s classic about morally bankrupt network executives who exploit (and eventually murder) a broadcaster and manipulate the public for the sake of ratings. I wonder, what could have possibly motivated him to choose that film?

This song was written in 1945 by composer Earl Robinson and lyricist Abel Meeropol. (Meeropol also wrote the song “Strange Fruit.”) Among the lines censored from it when it was originally recorded were references to “my neighbors white and black” and “all races, all religions.” It’s worth noting that Robeson, Robinson and Meeropol were all members of the American Communist Party and later blacklisted.